I hated the finale first time through, liked it the second time. I think David Chase is wrong (in
new AV Club interview, among other sources) when he said it worked just fine in 10, even if he would have only just added stories for tertiary characters. It needed room to breathe.
Honestly, the only part that really felt awkwardly done was the newsroom storyline. Which illustrates a very simple lesson: Don't s*** where you eat. It's funny, because Simon has spoken honestly about the egos and "onanism" of journalists for a long time, but failed to realize that he was in the most danger of falling victim to it. I don't think it was as bad as some people do, but I do think that if it had been done better and with more attention paid to telling a story instead of just presenting arguments, the season would have been far, far better.
As far as final episodes go, it was about the best we could have hoped for. After four years of bleak despair and tragedy, he ends it with banality, leaving almost all paths open-ended and in the most obvious direction. It's not much of an ending, but it's much closer to reality than the alternatives.
